Painted Canyon and Point 1460 - 3.11.2023
We parked at the end of the Painted Canyon Road in the Mecca Hills Wilderness.
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The canyon is very wide at the beginning of the hike.
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Ghost Flower.
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Cleft Leaf Wild Heliotrope according to PlantNet.
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After hiking a total of one mile we get two ladders to climb.
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Continuing to hike up the canyon.
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Love the color in the canyon.
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After hiking a total of 1.4 miles we will begin the loop portion of the hike by taking the right fork in the canyon... and we will return via the left fork.
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Our biggest ladder for the day.
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Continuing up the canyon.
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Two more ladders as we continue hiking up the canyon.
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Continuing up the canyon.
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Orcutt's Woody Aster according to PlantNet.
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Brittlebush according to PlantNet.
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Apricot Globemallow according to PlantNet.
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Continuing up the canyon... filled with lots of poppies.
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The canyon narrows.
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The canyon narrows.
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The canyon narrows.
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Our sixth ladder of the day.
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Our seventh ladder of the day.
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Interesting terrain as we continue hiking up the canyon.
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Getting ready to hike up out of the canyon.
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rocman hikes up out of the canyon.
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Looking back down at the canyon.
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Out of the canyon... looking at the Salton Sea in the middle of the photo... with the Santa Rosa Mountains on the right horizon.
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A rock dragonfly.
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A rock lizard.
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rocman is heading over to our high point of the day in the foreground.
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After hiking a total of 3 miles we have reached Point 1460... our high point for the day.
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We have left our high point and are heading down into another canyon.
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Almost down into our new canyon.
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Parish Poppy according to PlantNet.
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After hiking a total of 3.3 miles we are in our new canyon... filled with a ton of poppies.
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Continuing down the canyon.
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I have never seen this many ghost flowers bunched together.
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Scarlet Keckeilla according to PlantNet.
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Chia according to PlantNet.
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After hiking a total of 5 miles we are getting ready to close the loop portion of our hike.
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Pineneedle Milkweed according to PlantNet.
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We have closed the loop portion of our hike and are nearing the location of the first two ladders that we will be downclimbing on the way back to the car.
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From above I'm watching rocman downclimb the second ladder that we came up earlier in the day.
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Downclimbing the first ladder that we came up earlier in the day.
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Heading for the car... less than a mile of hiking will get us there.
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Only a stone's throw from the car... the total hike was 6.4 miles, gaining 965 feet of elevation.
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